Hebrews 1:1-12

1 In the past, God spoke through the prophets to our ancestors in many times and many ways.2 In these final days, though, he spoke to us through a Son. God made his Son the heir of everything and created the world through him.3 The Son is the light of God’s glory and the imprint of God’s being. He maintains everything with his powerful message. After he carried out the cleansing of people from their sins, he sat down at the right side of the highest majesty.4 And the Son became so much greater than the other messengers, such as angels, that he received a more important title than theirs.5 After all, when did God ever say to any of the angels: You are my Son. Today I have become your Father? Or, even, I will be his Father, and he will be my Son?6 But then, when he brought his firstborn into the world, he said, All of God’s angels must worship him.7 He talks about the angels: He’s the one who uses the spirits for his messengers and who uses flames of fire as ministers.8 But he says to his Son, God, your throne is forever and your kingdom’s scepter is a rod of justice.9 You loved righteousness and hated lawless behavior. That is why God, your God, has anointed you with oil instead of your companions.10 And he says, You, Lord, laid the earth’s foundations in the beginning, and the heavens are made by your hands.11 They will pass away, but you remain. They will all wear out like old clothes.12 You will fold them up like a coat. They will be changed like a person changes clothes, but you stay the same, and the years of your life won’t come to an end.

The opening words of Hebrews soar with Christological passion: “In the past God spoke through the prophets. . . . In these final days, though, he spoke to us through a Son” (ceb). And who could not hear these overtones in the Nicene Creed: “We believe in the one Lord,...

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Ecstasy over the Christmas miracle is the theme that binds this week’s passages together—unrestrained joy over what God has done and over who God is. These texts celebrate a God who reigns in strength. Yet this God is near and immediate, a participant in the human struggle for light and salvation. As worshipers, we join in rejoicing over the coming of the messenger “who says to Zion, ‘Your God reigns’”(Isa. 52:7). We also celebrate “the Lord, for he is coming to judge the earth . . . with righteousness, and . . . equity” (Ps. 98:9). Then the note of immediacy is struck by the focus on what God has done just now, in these “last days,” in which “he has spoken to us by a Son” (Heb. 1:2). The One who was present at creation, the eter- nal Word, “became esh and lived among us” (John 1:14).

Questions and Suggestions for Reflection

• Read Isaiah 9:2-7. What or who in your life helps you to continue to walk in the world’s darkness?
• Read Psalm 98. How do you discover hope even in the midst of dif cult times for the earth? How does this hope allow you to shout for joy and sing the Lord’s song?
• Hebrews 1:1-12. Advent reminds us of Jesus bridging the gap between God and humanity. How does this reality change the way you experience the world?
• John 1:1-14. Re ect on the incarnation of God in the form of a baby. In what ways does this in uence the way you see and understand God’s nature?

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"When I became a parent, I struggled to find God within the chaotic world where I now lived. I was used to contemplative prayer, to silence and service and listening for God’s still, small voice in quiet, hidden spaces. Suddenly none of my life felt quiet or hidden – it was all loud, messy, and exposed." Discover more.

—Lauren Burdette

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